Your Right to Know

The Obama administration reversed itself today, acknowledging to Congress that it had, in fact,
released more than 2,000 illegal immigrants from immigration jails due to budget constraints during
three weeks in February.

The director of U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement, John Morton, said his agency had
released 2,228 illegal immigrants during that period for what he called "solely budgetary reasons."
The figure was significantly higher than the "few hundred" immigrants the Obama administration had
publicly acknowledged were released under the budget-savings process. He testified during a hearing
by a House appropriations subcommittee.

Morton told lawmakers today that the decision to release the immigrants was not discussed in
advance with political appointees, including those in the White House or Homeland Security
Secretary Janet Napolitano. He said the pending automatic cuts known as sequestration was "driving
in the background."

"We were trying to live within the budget that Congress had provided us," Morton told
lawmakers. "This was not a White House call. I take full responsibility."

The Associated Press, citing internal budget documents, reported exclusively on March 1 that
the administration had released more than 2,000 illegal immigrants since Feb. 15 and planned to
release 3,000 more in March due to looming budget cuts, but Napolitano said days later that the
AP's report was "not really accurate" and that the story had developed "its own mythology."

"Several hundred are related to sequester, but it wasn't thousands," Napolitano said March 4
at a Politico-sponsored event.

On March 5, the House Judiciary Committee publicly released an internal ICE document that it
said described the agency's plans to release thousands of illegal immigrants before March 31. The
document was among those reviewed by the AP for its story days earlier.

The immigrants who were released still eventually face deportation and are required to appear
for upcoming court hearings. But they are no longer confined in immigration jails, where advocacy
experts say they cost about $164 per day per person. Immigrants who are granted supervised release
- with conditions that can include mandatory check-ins, home visits and GPS devices - cost the
government from 30 cents to $14 a day, according to the National Immigration Forum, a group that
advocates on behalf of immigrants.

Morton said today that among the immigrants released were 10 people considered the highest
level of offender. Morton said that although that category of offender can include people convicted
of aggravated felonies, many of the people released were facing financial crimes. Four of the most
serious offenders have been put back in detention. Other people released include immigrants who had
faced multiple drunken driving offenses, misdemeanor crimes and traffic offenses, Morton said.

After the administration challenged the AP's reporting, ICE said it didn't know how many
people had been released for budget reasons but would review its records.